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Need Recommendations for a pair of Speakers around $1,000

Hey All !

Ok, so with wife is good with spending about $1K on a pair of speakers.

I'm not sure of the preamp yet but the amp will most likely be an Adcom GFA-545 not the 545II.

I now have an older pair of Dayton Wright LCM-1's which are more suited to a smaller room.

The new speakers will be in the living room connected to the Adcom and also a signal fed from the TV but I don't want a multi-speaker system. Stereo is fine and if they sound good to me with music the wife will be happy with the TV sound. She just wants them to look good and not have a lot of wires hanging around. We'll be listening to vinyl, CD's, Lossless, FM and possibly music fed through Apple or AT&T fiber optic TV setup.

The living room is 19' w X  29' d with a 12' ceiling, hardwood oak flooring and 4 - 6' tall windows on one wall. The other side wall is open to a long entrance way and 2/3 of the far side is open to the kitchen are.

I thought about a used pair of Klipsch Hersey's but I keep reading comments that they are too outdated compared to advances in audio over the last few decades.

So for around $1K what are some good choices. I'm OK with used.

Thank you !

 

gorquin
travelinjack's avatar
travelinjack
186 posts
 

Second hand Revel F36 or F35 floor standing speakers. Possibly something from Focal.

markmoskow
40 posts
 

I have very similar space. Relatively live room. I tried some very expensive speakers...and none of them sounded good enough for me, some no better than my old Allison CD8s. Some worse. Until I bought a used set of MB Quart QSL 830s. You can get these for half of your budget and they outperformed anything I had. I have them a bit out from the wall, so there is that issue vs the Allisons, but they are room filling, spatial, and disappear. Also a small footprint for a floorstander, narrow, they look great and certainly look better than a stand will with a monitor. Mine are wired in from 40 feet away from the components in another room. Not expensive gear and still sound better or equal to a couple more expensive setups I have. Just great and amazing for the money.

 

mn2422
51 posts
 

Klipsch Heresy…

adversam
73 posts
 

In case you need a big bookshelf speakers, time ago I enjoyed for quite a long period a couple of Wharfedale Evo 4.2. Great midrange, solid, punchy bass, not the most dynamic speaker but a steal for their price. Plus they look so beautiful and well made. Worth give it a listen if you have a dealer in your area.

rop45
68 posts
 

You asked to compare my suggestion to Golden Ear Aon3.

Note: this is only from reading reviews, albeit with a bit of speaker wisdom applied, ha!

Golden Ears are great for their price and for their size.  You can't go wrong.

They might have an advantage in the tweeter if you like AMT tweeters.

The CSS CRITON 1tdx would have the advantage in bass, and possibly midrange too.  CRITON tweeter is a soft dome with some modern features that lower distort ion.  From what I have read, everyone says they are good enough, one person said he wished they were more detailed.  One more (Thomas & Stereo) YouTube review said he initially wished they were brighter tweeters but over time appreciated them more and more.  He is self-proclaimed "Focal fan boy" (Focal is often regarded as highly detailed) but in the end he said sometimes when I don't want to analyze my music, but instead enjoy it, it is good to switch over to the CSS.

The CSS bass is legendary.  Not just for it's size.  CSS midrange was compared favorably to Sonus Faber (which exemplifies warm midrange). CSS treble does nothing wrong, is never offensive, although some people have different preferences about the treble,

to say the tweeter does nothing wrong - does not call attention to itself is a high compliment (quoting The Audiophiliac)

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